Keeping in mind that hindsight is 20/20, a question that arises is: did China have the right idea? Or Italy after that?
Both of these countries took extreme measures and locked down a huge part of their countries when the COVID-19 virus increased until it was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization.
Now, India has moved in that direction and locked down their huge population, while other countries are also getting tough, like Britain, all in an effort to “flatten the curve” and try to minimize the deaths caused by this virus.
In many ways, COVID-19 is moving in like a tsunami wave, but it could also be compared to a tornado in some areas of the world. A tornado is a violent storm that is completely uncontrollable, and can strike in the middle of the night without any warning, causing great devastation.
The restrictions and lockdowns imposed by public health officials may seem drastic to some, and hurts a large segment of the population as they now can’t go to school or to work or in any way have a normal life. The problem is, to curtail a deadly virus from being transmitted person-to-person, this is the kind of action that needs to happen.
Looking to Canada, have the federal and provincial governments been acting in an appropriate and justifiable manner to protect the populace? Are they doing enough?
From this point of view in our history, and not knowing how everything is going to work out or how long it will take to work out, it would seem that the actions taken so far are appropriate. Only time will tell if that is true.
The federal government has stepped up to help the businesses impacted by this crisis, and will pay 75 per cent of the wages of employees if that business has lost 30 per cent or more of their normal revenue stream. For a business that has had to shut their doors and send their employees home, that won’t be hard to qualify for.
Perhaps the government should consider expanding that subsidy a little further to help the businesses that are still running because they are providing essential goods and services. Some of these businesses, like grocery stores and retailers like Wal-Mart, are doing the best they can, but they may need some assistance too in order to ensure they can continue providing those essential items like food and gas and prescriptions. (And toilet paper …)
For the rest of us, we are being bombarded with reminders to wash our hands, maintain a physical distance and to stay home if at all possible. The reminders are annoying, but are very necessary so we all keep in mind what we should be doing and not doing, and hopefully we will all successfully get through this crisis.
